Football

Six ex-Vaqueros going to NCAA bowl games

Dec 21, 2017

SBCC has six former football players going to NCAA FBS Bowl Games this year:

-- Ryan Rickel, a Vaquero punter & kickoff man in 2013, punted for Florida Atlantic (11-3) in the Boca Raton Bowl vs Akron (7-7) on Tuesday night (Dec. 19). The Owls walloped the Zips 50-3 and Rickel punted once for 34 yards and kicked a PAT for the 50th point. FAU is led by ex-USC coach Lane Kiffin. Rickel, a graduate student, played three years for the Owls (2014, 2015, 2017). He averaged 42.4 yards this year with a long of 63 yards.

-- Mitch Wishnowsky (pictured below), an all-state punter at SBCC in 2014, has punted the last two years for the University of Utah. The junior from Australia was named first-team All-Pac 12 for the second straight year. He was the 2016 Ray Guy Award winner as the best punter in the nation. He's 15th in the NCAA this year, averaging 44.2 yards a punt.
Wishnowsky will play in the Heart of Dallas Bowl on Tuesday, Dec. 26 at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas. The Utes (6-6) will take on West Virginia (7-5).

-- Three SBCC players from the 2016 team are going to the Arizona Bowl to play for New Mexico State on Dec. 29 vs Utah State. Isaac McClain, the starting right tackle, will play in the Aggies' first bowl in 57 years, along with center Billy Sharmoug and DB Nakota Shepard-Creer.

-- Joel Whitford, another Australian who earned all-state honors as a punter at SBCC in 2015, will punt for No. 12 Washington (10-2) in the Fiesta Bowl on Saturday, Dec. 30. The Huskies will play No. 9 Penn State (10-2). Whitford, a 6-3 sophomore from Neerim South, Australia, is averaging 41.4 yards per kick.